Soviet submarine ''K-21'' is a K-class submarine of the Soviet Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.А. В. Платонов, (2004). ''Энциклопедия советских подводных лодок 1941–1945'', Полигон. .

Construction

The boat was laid on 10 December 1937 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and launched on 16 August 1939. On 3 February 1941, it was commissioned as part of the Baltic Fleet under the command of Nikolai Lunin. On 17 September 1941, it was reenlisted in the Northern Fleet.

Service history

On its first war patrol, ''K-21'' laid 11 mines in the Strait of Best-Sung. On the morning of 27 November 1941, one of the mines struck and sank the Norwegian transport ''Bessheim''. Between 9 November 1941 and 31 March 1942, ''K-21'' unsuccessfully engaged three merchant ships and one German auxiliary patrol vessel. On 21 January 1942, Norwegian fishing boat F-223N ''Ingøy'' was sunk by gunfire from ''K-21''.K-21
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Attack on ''Tirpitz''

On 5 July 1942, ''K-21'' was in the vicinity of the Island of Ingay when she spotted the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' which was en route to intercept Convoy PQ 17 which was traveling from

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...

. However this mission was unsuccessful as the ''Tirpitz'' turned away. The convoy itself scattered upon hearing words of ''Tirpitzs imminent arrival, and most of the convoy's merchant ships were picked off by U-boats and the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

. On 27 June 1942, the ''K-21'' received an order to take up a combat position to cover

Convoy PQ-17 PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, ...

. Later, the submarine received a radiogram telling that a German squadron consisting of the battleship ''Tirpitz'', the heavy cruiser ''Admiral Scheer'', and several destroyers were moving to intercept the PQ-17 convoy. ''K-21'' began to search for the enemy squadron. On 5 July, at 4:33 pm, noise of approaching propellers was heard. The squadron was maneuvering in a zigzag pattern. The first ships to be seen were destroyers of the 1936 class, and they covered ''Tirpitz'' and the cruiser ''Admiral Scheer'' from possible attacks from submarines. The commander of ''K-21'' decided to attack. ''K-21'' bypassed the destroyers' protective barrier and went inside the squadron. Having approached to a distance of almost 13,000 feet the submarine fired a four torpedo spread from stern torpedo tubes towards the ''Tirpitz''. Acoustics and crew members in the compartments of the submarine heard two explosions however, after the war, historians in German documents did not find evidence of torpedoes making contact with the battleship; the Germans did not even take notice of the attack. Historian M.E. Morozov put forward a hypothesis about the impossibility of torpedoes hitting the battleship, and he explained the origin of the explosions saying that the torpedoes detonated early. There are no references to Lunin's attack in the Tirpitz documents of the event. ''K-21'' sank four small Norwegian motor boats via gunfire on 12 February 1943 at

Lopphavet Lopphavet is a stretch of open sea along the border of Troms og Finnmark and Troms og Finnmark counties in Norway. It has a width of about , and it stretches between the large island of Sørøya in Finnmark and the islands of Arnøya and Nord-Fugl ...

. On 22 April 1943, the German merchant ship ''Duna'' was sunk by a mine laid by ''K-21'' on 18 February 1943. In May 1945, the boat was repaired.

Postwar

October 1948, ''K-21'' made the first Soviet submarine voyage off the coast of the United States. From 6 to 14 April 1949 the boat took part in oceanographic work in the area of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. After withdrawal from service, for about 20 years she served as a training ship. In the spring of 1981, she was moved to the city of

Polyarny, Murmansk Oblast Polyarny (russian: Поля́рный) is a town and the administrative center of the closed administrative-territorial formation of Alexandrovsk in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the outermost western side of the Kola Bay. Population: I ...

to be converted into a museum ship. After reworking three compartments for the exposition (the other 4 remained virtually unchanged) was put on a pedestal (immersed in water at high tide) as a museum in

Severomorsk Severomorsk (russian: Северомо́рск), known as Vayenga () until April 18, 1951, is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Severomorsk is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The town is located on the coast o ...

, Russia. The museum was opened in 1983. In the late 1990s, the boat underwent some general repairs. From 2008 to 2009, the museum was renovated.Музей Северного флота обновит свою экспозицию, rosbalt.ru, 29/12/2008
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Awards and achievements

On 23 October 1942, the K-21 submarine was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of t ...

Summary of raiding history

On 14 September 1943 other three small Norwegian fishing boats (Havatta, Baren and Eyshteyn) were attacked with gunfire but escaped despite damage.